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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5991 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 113 of 265 02 December 2009 at 6:16am | IP Logged |
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Wow, what a busy day. I did my French vocabulary from Ultimate French but still didn't have time to my Portuguese frequency vocabulary or the other school vocabulary for French (not actually assigned yet...) because I had to go study for a world history test, which turned out to be very easy.
So, I read a bunch of The Aeneid and took copious notes on like every thirty lines and answered all these analysis questions about it because my horrible language arts teacher decided we didn't have enough to do already with the other things he assigned (don't get me started). But yes, I know what that is now. And it was in Latin. (Originally.) That's the language link... And also an excuse for not getting done as much as I would have liked. Now I'm off to work on more French homework. We're currently reading something by Guy de Maupassant about Mont Saint-Michel. --Philip Tomorrow: Swedish 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5991 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 114 of 265 03 December 2009 at 11:55pm | IP Logged |
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Well, I have finally finished all of my Swedish lesson from SEGR. Here are my translations for lesson six (please forgive my horrible translation of the poem; I don't do poetry).
Swedish to English För tre hundra år sedan lät en svensk drottning bygga ett stort slott på Lovön, en av de natursköna öarna i Mälaren väster om Stockholm. Slottet fick namnet Drottningholm. Stora tradgårdar och lummiga parker omger slottet. Där bodde den svenska kungafamiljen på somrarna. När Gustav III blev kung, började Drottningholms storhetstid. Kungen bjöd många gäster till det praktfulla slottet, bland dem Carl Mikael Bellman. Från Stockholm rodde man i båtar eller for med häst och vagn ut till Lovön. Här är en vers av en dikt som Bellman skrev om en båtresa på Mälaren en sommarmorgon. Solen glimmar blank och trind, vattnet likt en spegel; småningom uppblåser vind i de fallna segel; vimpeln sträcks och med en år Olle på en höbåt står; Kerstin ur kajutan går, skjuter lås och regel. Three hundred years ago, a Swedish queen had a big castle built on Lovön, one of the scenic islands in Lake Mälaren west of Stockholm. The castle was named Drottningholm. Big gardens and lush parks surround the castle. There lived the Swedish royal family in the summers. When Gustav III became king, Drottningholm’s Golden Age began. The king invited many guests to the magnificent castle, among them Carl Mikael Bellman. From Stockholm they rowed in boats or traveled with horse and carriage out to Lovön. Here is a verse of a poem that Bellman wrote about a boat trip on Lake Mälaren one summer morning. The sun gleams bright and round, the water like a mirror; gradually the wind inflates the fallen sail; the pennant is stretched and Olle stands with an oar on the hay boat; Kerstin goes out of the cabin, pushes the lock and bolt. English to Swedish Big parks surround the castle. The happy guests were standing on the landing stage. The young queen lived in a beautiful castle north of the town. Every year in the spring the queen invites many young girls to the palace. When Gustav III became king he invited great poets and sculptors to Drottningholm. Bellman wrote many poems to the Swedish Royal Family. Last summer we were living on a beautiful Swedish island called Kymmendö. We rowed every day. The young Swedish girls liked looking at the magnificent gardens. We saw the red house where Bellman used to live. Last autumn we went by car to the new town south of Stockholm. Where was the castle situated? May I have a cup of coffee? I had to give her a cup of coffee. They let him come. They had a new house built last summer. Stora parker omger slottet. De glada gäster stod på brygga. Den unga drottning levde i ett vackert slott norr om staden. Varje år på vårn bjuder drottningen många unga flickor till slottet. När Gustav III blev kung bjöd han stora skalder och skulptörer till Drottningholm. Bellman skrev många dikter till den svenska kungafamiljen. I somrars levde vi på en vacker svensk ö som hette Kymmendö. Vi rodde varje dag. De unga svenska flickorna tyckte om att tittar på de praktfulla trädgårdar. Vi såg det rött hus var Bellman levde. I höstas åkte vi bil till den nya staden söder om Stockholm. Var liggde slottet? Kan jag få en kopp kaffe? Jag fick ge till henne en kopp kaffe. De lät honom komma. I somrars lät de bygga ett nytt hus. -- Philip P.S. Liz, your Norwegian knowledge is, in my opinion, sufficient to see any grammatical errors... Just look it over if you could and tell me if anything just looks weird in that sense. Thanks! Edited by ellasevia on 03 December 2009 at 11:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5758 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 115 of 265 04 December 2009 at 1:02am | IP Logged |
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Nice work!
But, uhm... You do know that Scandinavians can't speak each other's languages, right? :-) Only understand them! So I'm not sure I'm really qualified to comment. Since you asked I'll comment anyway, but please do remember that anything I can possibly point out will be based mostly on Norwegian, modified by a passive only knowledge of Swedish, so I might be wrong, and I might miss some things. Hopefully a native Swedish speaker will find your log and give their own corrections. My comments: Be careful about "man", that you don't teach yourself that it means "they", it's much more general and doesn't refer to specific people. In your example it obviously refers to a certain group of people, but it's still not really saying "they". I remember complaining to my English teacher that there wasn't a good equivalent of this in English that didn't sound a little too formal to be used in regular speech. You probably already know this, but think of it in a very general sense, as in "man kan ikke..." "De fallna segel" is plural, not singular. I am NOT used to producing Swedish forms so I might be wrong here but I'll just point out the things that stand out to me: It should be "...stod på bryggan" (definite) and I'd also say "Den unga drottningen". Noun definiteness is chronically problematic in Scandinavian languages and many foreigners never get this right, so just watch it carefully. In the case where you have "den (adjective) (noun)", more often than not the noun should be definite. Anything else sounds slightly dated, with the exception of things like churches and restaurants, such as (yes, more Norwegian) "den norske kirke". (It's late and that was the only example that came to mind. Sorry. But then, if you specify the location, it's definite - e.g. "den norske kirken i Cardiff". No idea why though) It should be "tyckte om att titta", titta in the infinitive, and I believe "trädgårder" (whatever that is) should be inflected in the definite form. I couldn't possibly hope to produce all the right forms for red even though I can recognise them, but "det rött hus" has the adjective in the wrong form (and the noun should be definite), assuming they do things the same way we do (which I'm fairly sure they do). In Norwegian it goes like this: "et rødt hus" vs "det røde huset". Also, using Norwegian assumptions again, it's not "liggde" but something like the Norwegian "lå" (låg in Swedish?). Just an irregular verb. Last thing, in Norwegian we distinguish between "jeg ga (someone) (something)" and "jeg ga (something) til (someone)". Word order determines what form you use. Great job with this. These things are minor points, and the good news is if you nail them you will impress everybody. People are very used to such mistakes in every sentence. Hope that all makes sense. Hopefully any Swedish natives reading this will comment... Liz Edited by Lizzern on 04 December 2009 at 1:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5991 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 116 of 265 04 December 2009 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
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Wow, thanks so much, Liz. That text definitely had more real mistakes than I would care to admit, although some were typos. So... I have now edited my translations and made the corrections... Here they are:
Swedish to English Three hundred years ago, a Swedish queen had a big castle built on Lovön, one of the scenic islands in Lake Mälaren west of Stockholm. The castle was named Drottningholm. Big gardens and lush parks surround the castle. There lived the Swedish royal family in the summers. When Gustav III became king, Drottningholm’s Golden Age began. The king invited many guests to the magnificent castle, among them Carl Mikael Bellman. From Stockholm they rowed in boats or traveled with horse and carriage out to Lovön. Here is a verse of a poem that Bellman wrote about a boat trip on Lake Mälaren one summer morning. The sun gleams bright and round, the water like a mirror; gradually the wind inflates the fallen sails; the pennant is stretched and Olle stands with an oar on the hay boat; Kerstin goes out of the cabin, pushes the lock and bolt. English to Swedish Stora parker omger slottet. De glada gäster stod på bryggan. Den unga drottningen bodde i ett vackert slott norr om staden. Varje år på vårn bjuder drottningen många unga flickor till slottet. När Gustav III blev kung bjöd han stora skalder och skulptörer till Drottningholm. Bellman skrev många dikter till den svenska kungafamiljen. I somrars bodde vi på en vacker svensk ö som hette Kymmendö. Vi rodde varje dag. De unga svenska flickorna tyckte om att titta på de praktfulla trädgårdarna. Vi såg det röda hus var Bellman bodde. I höstas åkte vi bil till den nya staden söder om Stockholm. Var låg slottet? Kan jag få en kopp kaffe? Jag fick ge henne en kopp kaffe. De lät honom komma. I somrars lät de bygga ett nytt hus. Oh, and about man, yes, I knew that already (especially since the word is the same in German too), but I translated it as "they" because it sounded like more natural English to me. --Philip Edited by ellasevia on 04 December 2009 at 4:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5758 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 117 of 265 04 December 2009 at 1:59am | IP Logged |
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Those are minor mistakes and you're doing much better than most beginners. You have nothing to worry about. And you care enough about languages to actually work to get these things right, which is great.
One thing I apparently failed to notice before, which I imagine is the same in Swedish as in Norwegian: You don't use the verb "leva" (I think that's the Swedish infinitive, "leve" in Norwegian) about places you've lived. In Norwegian the verb is "bo" and I'm quite sure Swedish has a similar one. The former refers to living in a grander sense, I guess. Nothing poetic about it, "leve" is just not used about living quarters or even where you live (street, city, country, continent...). So you'll want to check the verb in "...levde vi på en vacker svensk ö". Edited by Lizzern on 04 December 2009 at 2:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5991 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 118 of 265 04 December 2009 at 2:01am | IP Logged |
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Wow, yeah, you're right. I really made a lot of mistakes on this lesson.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5991 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 119 of 265 04 December 2009 at 4:14am | IP Logged |
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So apparently Livemocha now has Swedish 102 out, so I signed up for that, even though I still have to finish 101 (just a couple lessons away). I also noticed that they finally have the speaking and writing submissions available for Swedish, so I went back and did a few of those. I'm counting that as achieving my Swedish goal of doing a Livemocha lesson, partly so that I get to cross something off of my list. :)
Also, I decided yesterday that I will, starting next week, switch the days (yes, I have done this a lot, but I have to do it so that it fits with my busy schedule) for Swedish and Italian. This means that Swedish will be on Sundays and Italian will be on Wednesdays. Wednesday is usually the part of the week now when I start to really fall apart and get behind language-wise, so I'm putting a language that is requiring less work (because for Swedish, the vocabulary lists are immense, I have to read about all the grammar and usage, and do all of the translations; for Italian, the vocabulary and grammar come easier because I know other Romance languages and am more advanced). So, yes. Don't be confused if you're following this. Edited by ellasevia on 07 December 2009 at 2:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5991 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 120 of 265 08 December 2009 at 1:16am | IP Logged |
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Just a heads up: it is very possible that I may not be writing anything here until around December 19th... It's really busy now at school, and finals start next week. So, I will not have much time (even though I like finals week because we start school two hours later and only have four hours total each day with a 1.5 hour break in between) to do stuff.
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